Guerlain Palette Electric Look

2018 must have been the year of the 8-pans palette, because in addition to Suqqu x Gemstone Kaleidoscope 2018 Christmas Eyeshadow Compact, I also indulged in this Guerlain Palette Electric Look, apparently a 190 years LE released for the holiday 2018 collection, but I didn't know that at the time of purchase. I just saw it and was taken with the jewel-tone shades (I sense a trend here...). Along with this palette, I also picked up Meteorites Electric Pearl, another 190 years LE which I'll post next.

All pictures taken in natural light without flash.

So, having only seen Guerlain lipsticks in alternately fancy and hideous tubes and customizable cases but have never bought anything from the luxury house before, I didn't know what to expect. When the package arrived, I was rather shocked to find both the box and the black compact case inside cheaply made and oh-so-plastic-y. For $80, the compact looked and felt like something I could grab for $10 at the drugstore, or worse, at the dollar store. The included cheek brush and eye applicators were particularly pathetic and laughable. Sure, I'll admit that I'm spoiled rotten with Japanese cosmetics and makeup brushes, but that doesn't change the fact that Japanese drugstore brands had better applicators than these Guerlain ones. Urgh. It boggles my mind. To celebrate their 190 years of existence, a luxury house as big as Guerlain release this POS compact? May be I'm totally biased, but experiences like this only reinforces my indifference to most luxury brands outside of Japan.  

Thankfully, the 2 highlighters and 8 eye shadows are of much better quality than their crappy compact. All are finely pressed powder. With the exception of the blue-green and purple, the rest are silky smooth, with the majority being buttery to the touch. They are all supremely pigmented. The swatches below are a single swipe each, yes, including the highlighters. The whole palette is unscented. 

I should also note that all the eye shadows can be used wet or dry. I learned this while googling the palette after I bought it, because nowhere on the packaging does it actually tell me this. I only swatched them dry below though, because chances of me using them wet is zero, if not beyond zero, negative chances. I've read that they actually don't apply well or evenly when wet anyway. Over all, I'm glad I have this but I probably won't ever buy such a big palette again.

I'll start with the highlighters. They are gorgeous, but they're not highlighters at all in my opinion. Look how crazy pigmented they are--one swipe each! Not to mention they're highly shimmery and are metallic. Unless I'm going for the disco ball look (erhhh never?), there's no way in hell I'd highlight my face with either. However, as eye shadows they are gorgeous and are particularly useful as allover lid washes. I just use my lay-down brush and swipe them on and that's that. Love.

- Top: metallic high shimmer, medium intensity. A translucent pink-beige. The natural lighting in my photos washed out all the colors (it was a bright sunny day) so I couldn't capture this pink, but it's obvious in real life.

- Bottom: metallic, high intensity. A semi-opaque yellow gold that appears almost reddish in real life, like a gypsy gold. Again, my camera couldn't capture this in natural lighting. Sorry!

Top row, left to right:
- Base, highlighter: pearl, medium intensity. Appears a chalky white in the photos but is in fact an off-white with a pearly pink sheen.
- Base, highlighter: matte, medium intensity. Beige. Unlike some Japanese brands' idea of matte (*cough* Suqqu *cough*), this shade is in fact, matte, as in zero reflective property. In a pinch, it works as a concealer for my under eye area too.
- Medium, crease: satin, medium intensity. A reddish suede. Despite appearing matte, it does have micro-shimmers that are more visible in indoor lighting than in natural light. I'm starting to see a lot of colors in this range among the most recent Japanese releases. Too bad these colors turn my eye lids red :(
- Medium, crease: metallic, high intensity. An intensely metallic nickel. In the photos, this color washed out to more of a caramel, but the red is very apparent in real life.

Bottom row, left to right:
- Medium, crease, liner: metallic, high intensity. A gorgeous and intensely metallic garnet.
- Medium, crease, liner: satin, high intensity. A pretty blue-green that's unfortunately very dry and gritty. Swatching this color took me aback, because all the colors I'd swatch up to this point was buttery.  

- Deep, liner: satin, high intensity. A lovely blackened purple with fine violet shimmers. Thankfully, this color is much smoother than the blue-green, but it's still pretty dry in comparison to the others.
- Medium, crease: metallic, high intensity. An antique gold that's intensely metallic with a foil-like finish.

Full palette swatches.